Person Wants To Expose To Mom That Their ‘Secret Family Recipe’ Actually Came From The Side Of A Can
A lot of us cherish the moments that were spent with our family members. Now, with the marathon of celebrations coming up, most of us are already in the planning mode, remembering all the great things that we’re going to do with our family members. During this time, not only do we take our precious decorations and ornaments out but also start planning what we are going to make to surprise our loved ones. Very often, this is the time when traditions make their way out, reminding us of their importance and ability to bring family members closer. There’s no doubt that some people associate big family gatherings with food and drinks. For some of us, it’s grandmother’s pie or mom’s cookies that are made every year without exceptions, and their recipes are already considered a part of the family’s heritage. Having this nostalgic sense in mind, Reddit user @u/absolutirony decided to ask others online if what they’re about to do is worth shattering something that their relatives hardly believe in. The question that received more than 24k upvotes soon was filled with various opinions of other users.
More Info: Reddit
A lot of people love to remember the good times they’ve spent with their family and the traditions that they follow every year
Image credits: Caitriana Nicholson (not the actual image)
The author of the post started their story by sharing that every year, when Christmas is just around the corner, their mom makes a delicious fudge. What is special about this fudge is that the original poster’s (OP) grandmother got it from a candy maker and since then, the way it was made has been kept as a family secret. It was even said that only when a family member hits adulthood are they allowed to see the recipe, so until they are 30 years old, they have no clue how it’s made. However, OP found out what the recipe was a little bit earlier than that thanks to their mom who asked for a helping hand when preparing the famous fudge.
Reddit user took an opportunity to ask others whether they should disclose a family “secret” that involves the fudge recipe
Image credits: u/absolutirony
The person shared that it didn’t take much time for them to figure out what the recipe was and that once their mom and grandmother realized that they “got” it earlier than usual, both of them became really upset about it. OP revealed that they don’t think “recipe hoarding” is something special, but they didn’t give it out to anyone else besides their brother and sister. But their mom and grandmother still held a grudge years later and even said that they don’t trust OP over what happened.
The person revealed that their family has a secret fudge recipe that is passed on through generations
Image credits: Peter Merholz (not the actual image)
The Reddit user continued with their story by sharing that they came across an article about a chef who, after an extensive search, was able to trace the book from which their family recipe was taken. This is when OP remembered their secret family recipe and decided to do their own research to find out where the fudge recipe came from. This is when they found out that their special recipe was taken from an evaporated milk company and wasn’t a secret at all as it was on every can. This discovery made OP believe that someone from their family lied about the recipe’s real origin, and now they are thinking about whether they should share their revelation with others.
The author of the post found out the recipe earlier than planned, which upset their mom and grandmother
Image credits: u/absolutirony
Being in this situation led the person to ask others online what to do as they thought it would be funny, but at the same time, they realized that it might make them a jerk. The question gave a green light to a lot of users who shared their points of view on the situation. Some of them thought that it was okay to tell the truth because of the harsh behavior that OP received from their relatives, while some thought that this way the author of the post would ruin something that both women believe in, and that no good might come from this. What is your take on this matter? Don’t forget to leave your thoughts in the comments down below!
Years later, OP found out that the famous family fudge recipe is actually on every evaporated milk can
Image credits: u/absolutirony
Why are family traditions so important? They’re not only there to keep us all busy and add some more things to the endless list of chores before big celebrations. These traditions and unique “rules” make us more connected and open to one another. According to Generations Family Practice, people who grow up in a family that follows certain traditions have a better understanding of themselves and don’t suffer from a lack of self-confidence as they are aware of their family history. So going shopping for a Christmas tree, decorating the house, baking gingerbread, or even going for a long walk as a family only benefits its members, especially the younger ones who will later cherish these moments.
Now the person faces a dilemma between wanting to tell the truth or keep it to themselves
Image credits: Alexandra P (not the actual image)
The Reddit user is still scared that by debunking the whole story, they might come off as a jerk
Image credits: u/absolutirony
The story made a lot of users online share their opinions on the situation that might not be as easy as it looks
Some Reddit users shared that the truth about the recipe’s origins might spoil their relationship with the family
Image credits: u/absolutirony
After being called untrustworthy, and having snide comments aimed at me up to 15 years later, I'd tell them. I'd wear that AH badge with pride.
Better yet, build gift packs which contain all the necessary ingredients for the fudge and hand them out as gifts. When the recipients ask for the recipe tell them it's on the can of evap milk.
Load More Replies...
I'm kind of happy that all my grandmother's recipes are cutouts from magazines and sides from bags and boxes, carefully glued into a book. It's no secret that the cake was published in Hjemmet and the herrings were on the back of the spice packet.
Mum's delicious vegetable lasagne recipe originally came off a packet. It's no longer the exact same recipe, because she's tweaked it, but the basics came off a packet.
Load More Replies...
I agree that "secret family recipes" are just weird. Why does it need to be a secret? Just so that you can feel like you're superior to others? I'd personally feel better about sharing a good recipe so that more people can enjoy it than I would hoarding it to myself. Even two people using the exact same recipe will probably get a different result; Using different variants of the same ingredients, using different methods, even different ovens and equipment. The mom and grandmother are totally petty jerks to keep harping about her learning this "secret family recipe" after getting her to help, 15 years later. 15 years! And they still can't let it go! I would just casually bring up how strange it was to find that "secret family recipe" on the side of the Carnation can. If they hadn't acted like jerks, then there'd be no reason to burst their bubble.
I would not touch that possible hornets Nest with a 10m pole. Let them keep their "secret".
I like the idea of showing up with a can of Carnation and leaving it on the counter. It tells EVERYTHING without OP having to say a word. OR, she could show up with the Carnation Cookbook. I believe you can still buy it from the company. Some very good recipes in it.
Load More Replies...
I'd say, "Mom, I think some big company stole grandma's recipe. I wonder if we can sue..."
They’d probably actually sue just to keep up the lie 😂
Load More Replies...
I make a yummy chocolate cake for family members birthdays. Been making it since i was 17(now 58). Never was it secret that I found it in a magazine ad for hersheys cocoa. Google "hersheys perfect chocolate cake" and it too can be yours. A great easy cake
My fudge recipe is from Hersheys too. It's called quick nut fudge and is fabulous. We've been making it for years.
Load More Replies...
This is actually very common. There were two recipes in my family that we thought were gone forever after my grandmother and aunt died. I managed to find both recipes by googling the main ingredient.
I attend a golf tournament picnic every year, and everyone always asks if I'm going to bring my special spinach queso dip. It involves a very complex process of mixing one jar of Tostitos spinach dip with one jar of Tostitos queso sauce and heating. Just remember the wisdom of Mr. Peng from Kung Fu Panda: "To make something special, you just have to TELL people it's special. There is no secret ingredient."
This is hilarious, not the least because some of our family’s best recipes are either straight from or slightly altered from packaging (e.g. my grandma’s pecan pie- straight off a corn syrup bottle, my pancakes, slightly altered from a kid’s cookbook)
I don't understand the hysterics over trying to keep the recipe secret at all. We have one really traditional family recipe that comes from my great-grandma for Christmas bread (Czech vánočka). I refuse to use any other, it has a special place in my heart but I don't see any reason to keep it secret. The exact opposite - I'd be proud to share it with others. People are crazy.
Depends on how fun her family is. I, for one, got a huge laugh out of the day my Aunt sent me to the store to get a package of her famous pie dough from the refrigerated section because she forgot it. Her own husband didn't know! 😂
honestly, they should just share the recipe's origins with all of their family and watch their mom go off :DD
There are secrets and then there are "Secrets"... I'm of the opinion that unless you are profiting monetarily from a "secret" recipe, like, it's how you make your living, who gives a hoot if it's shared? For the life of me, I'll never understand the need for culinary one-upmanship in a non-commercial setting! "My mom's apple pie recipe is the best in the world!", big deal. Maybe to you, it is, but really? Where does this exclusivity of knowledge thing come from, seriously? Wouldn't you like to share your best recipes with others so THEY can share in the joy of making/giving/eating these dishes? I personal hate it when someone tells me that nobody can make Recipe X better than their mom/dad/grandmother etc. I'll just go home and figure it out and usually make something equally good (and sometimes better) just out of curiosity and a smidgen of spite. So what, your mom makes awesome fudge, and you know how to make it yourself. Make a batch, include the recipe on a card, and tell them it's your recipe. Your mom feel into the "Pride goeth before a fall" trap. It'll be good for her. Your family supporting her unjustified pride? They fell into it on her behalf, let them go rub salve on each other's wounds. NTA!
My family used to buy dip from a local mom&pop store. We loved their dip. Then they died. My mom found the recipe in one of her books - I think it was a local recipe book. Then the daughter started making and selling the dip. Mom still buys it from her - like 10-12 cartons for the holidays. Much easier than making it herself. And we still call it by the family's name.
Load More Replies...
If you like stories like this, there's a YouTube cooking show I watch called "Glen and Friends Cooking" where he does recipes from old cookbooks, and a lot of the time he talks about how often someone's "special recipe" is just one that got passed around most of the newspaper recipe columns in the country several years ago. It's just that a handful of people held on to it while most have forgotten about the newspaper article.
I would have ordered a dozen of the cans with the recipe and spread them as family christmas gifts
...fudge isn't exactly a recipe known by one single person. Most recipes aren't. Sure, we may adapt them slightly but they're the same at their "root" I wouldn't be ashamed or disheartened or feel like an AH. I love to experiment, and finding new recipes online is great. Then you add your own special twist on it. Or not, if you don't want to. Who cares?!
Sometimes the difference lies in the quality of the ingredients. The difference can be markedly better, or worse.
Load More Replies... My uncle did something similar, at first they the family was shocked to fing out the secret wasn't a secret. Then the laughter started, from them in the secret recipe because a running joke in the family.
My Aunt Mary's German Chocolate Cake recipe came from the Baker's Chocolate wrapper. Her twist on it was that, a) she used *every bit* of the batter (no beaters or bowl to scrounge!), b) she was the only one who went through all the work of baking that cake & cooking the frosting from scratch. Finally, c) she made it with a lot of love. Now I carry on the tradition. I also love to tweak the noses of those who *want* that recipe to gloat over. I just smile and tell them, "Seek and Ye shall find." LOL! They'd never go through the work, anyhow. 😊
I'll never understand why some people are such big a******s. Why not share a recipe? Except if you are a chef and you create special recipes, everybody else gets their recipes from somebody. Also, fudge is very simple and has exactly two ingredients, so if you help prepare it once, you'll remember forever. If I were the OP, I'd spill the beans.
Not sure about being TA or not here but now I'm suddenly in the mood for some good fudge :-P
I favor the recipe on the marshmallow cream jar. I also vary that one by substituting butterscotch chips for the chocolate chips. Both versions are easy and good.
Load More Replies...
Never understand this "secret family" whatever garbage. The TRUTH is always the best. Nothing to be worry about. Why do so many even CARE what the "family" thinks. Stupid is as stupid DOES.
My family has a long-running joke We have a secret recipe for pumpkin pie and fudge. Now our recipe is not secret anybody can find it cuz it's on the side of the can of a brand of sweetened condensed that milk that shares my last name. Lol. So it is in fact a"secret family recipe" but I always tell anyone who wants to know how I make my stuff just try the side of a Borden sweetened condensed milk can. Most people have figured it out at this point.
Honestly, I'd let them take it to the grave with them. But then teach my kids the truth.
While my family never made fudge, two of our signature desserts growing up were banana pudding and sweet potato pie. The banana pudding recipe came from a box of Nilla Vanilla Wafers from Nabisco (which are used as a cake base to line the dish then make layers, similar to tiramisu, which uses lady's fingers cookies). The pie was more by rote, where there's no written recipe, but it's pretty simple (the secret is evaporated milk, which provides a creamy consistency). My younger sister now makes both desserts as close to how our mom did, as well as a few other things.
If I wanted fun with this, I wouldn't tell the official holders of the secret family recipe I knew, I'd ask Mom and Grandma to whip up a batch of secret recipe fudge as part of a fudge-off, enlist the siblings and other relatives who've not been let in on the recipe yet in taking part making some fudge too. Then subtly push at least a couple to use the Carnation recipe, and watch the confusion as they realise they've made something so close, if not identical, to the secret recipe. Oh, but I'd use a recipe from another book (not the Carnation website/family secret one).
due to health reasons, my grandmother ended up changing a family turkey dressing recipe for her dad. originally, it was one with raisins, nuts, and some other things that, in my opinion, make it sound more like a sweet than savory dressing. the resulting dressing is one that is loved by all. mom would always make it on her own but when i left the house i asked for the recipe which she gave...kind of. for years, it was close but not the same. so, while visting i got her to go over the recipe with me and she revealed that she didn't tell me a couple of tips...like certain spices and amount of veg that goes into it. now, i make it like mom. after she passed dad and i were reminiscing about her cooking and i told him this story. it was then that he confessed that she would often leave out an ingredient when sharing recipes but to do this to her own daughter really ticked him off. but, we laughed about it now.
It's no big deal. A lot of the secrets are added without being in the recipe. E.g., my grandma's secret recipe for fudge was from Hershey's *to start*. but she added her own twists as whim took her, so we had her spice-swirl fudge that was *not* Hershey
My ex MIL never wanted anyone’s food to turn out better than hers, so she’d give you the recipe, if you wanted it. BUT… she’d omit ingredients or give you the wrong quantities. For example, she had a recipe for Italian sausage that claimed you needed 2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper. It was way too spicy! I watched her making it once… 1/2 teaspoon. :/
Unless that recipe is the foundation of a business, who cares - keeping recipes secret is a great way to lose them. Spread them out, make tasty food, everyone wins.
Story may not be wrong. Many people submitted recipes in hopes of receiving prizes or for the satisfaction of knowing their recipe was the "best".
I am going reverse the general consensus: revealing the secret would make them TA. Who knows who did what and when. It is a family tradition and is a sweet family tradition. But thanks to OP and the internet, that could be destroyed. It's harmless and something that can connect family. I am willing to wager the teasing is over exaggerated. Just let it go. There is too little magic and wonder in the world.
Best spiteful idea…tell everyone you found a better recipe! The one on the side of the can of evaporated milk! Then make some and give it out and have fun as they all say that Grandma’s recipe is better!
It is possible grandma got the recipe from a friend of a friend and never knew it was on the side of the can.
I have always loved my mother’s chocolate chip cookies but mine were not the same. I asked her. She said it was just the recipe on the tollhouse cookie bag. I asked the same question several times over about 10 years. Finally, angry and frustrated with my persistence, she shouted, “I just use the recipe on the bag of chocolate chips, I just add an extra 1/4 cup of flour!” Of course, as a natural baker, she just assumed her minor alteration was something anyone would know!
My mother made the best fudge my entire childhood. I was totally surprised when I found out years later she was using the recipe on the back of the Marshmallow Fluff jar.
I had this moment with my mom’s meatloaf. I love her meatloaf and it’s the only one I’ll eat. One day she pulled out a box of Lipton onion soup mix and just as an afterthought she showed me the side of the box and randomly said “if you ever want to make meatloaf this is the recipe I use.” I was devastated to find out that this whole time I thought her amazing meatloaf was special it really wasn’t
I’m all for calling out family on their toxic bs. They lied about a “secret family recipe” for generations then scapegoated a descendant for not keeping their mouth shut? Tell the world! Take out a full-page ad in the local newspaper! Have no mercy!
Out the whole family. F them all. Post the link to the website on Facebook and watch them out themselves for recognizing it.
By the way, they are making an issue out of nothing because they like being miserable and critical. Not your problem. Defuse and stop this whole mess by passing out the recipe. You still have the secret ingredient, the LOVE you put into it when you make it.
Your ok. The secret ingredients is LOVE. Everyone loves my husband's cranberry sauce, because he made it. Food usually tastes better if you don't have to cook it. The fudge is loved because someone special made it every year and the mystery of the secret ingredient. Do they still enjoy the fudge? Everything is on line now, every recipe started somewhere. It did come from a special chef somewhere and it ended up being on the carnation can and now its can be found on the internet. That's our life today. I like the idea of the can. Fudge is like many family dishes, it can be altered to make it your own, special and enjoyed by all. You have nothing to feel bad about. Using a pretty font print out the recipe, from you and the chef at Carnation. Give it out next time you serve it, they are already giving you grief so end it.
Did it occur to you that the "famous candy maker" from whom your great-grandmother got the recipe was using the recipe from the can? Poor great-grandma probably thought she had really snagged a secret treasure, so naturally grandma and mom think so too. My mom would laugh about it but it doesn't sound like yours will find it amusing. Why break her heart? Save it for a funny story to tell after she's gone.
After being called untrustworthy, and having snide comments aimed at me up to 15 years later, I'd tell them. I'd wear that AH badge with pride.
Better yet, build gift packs which contain all the necessary ingredients for the fudge and hand them out as gifts. When the recipients ask for the recipe tell them it's on the can of evap milk.
Load More Replies... I'm kind of happy that all my grandmother's recipes are cutouts from magazines and sides from bags and boxes, carefully glued into a book. It's no secret that the cake was published in Hjemmet and the herrings were on the back of the spice packet.
Mum's delicious vegetable lasagne recipe originally came off a packet. It's no longer the exact same recipe, because she's tweaked it, but the basics came off a packet.
Load More Replies... I agree that "secret family recipes" are just weird. Why does it need to be a secret? Just so that you can feel like you're superior to others? I'd personally feel better about sharing a good recipe so that more people can enjoy it than I would hoarding it to myself. Even two people using the exact same recipe will probably get a different result; Using different variants of the same ingredients, using different methods, even different ovens and equipment. The mom and grandmother are totally petty jerks to keep harping about her learning this "secret family recipe" after getting her to help, 15 years later. 15 years! And they still can't let it go! I would just casually bring up how strange it was to find that "secret family recipe" on the side of the Carnation can. If they hadn't acted like jerks, then there'd be no reason to burst their bubble.
I would not touch that possible hornets Nest with a 10m pole. Let them keep their "secret".
I like the idea of showing up with a can of Carnation and leaving it on the counter. It tells EVERYTHING without OP having to say a word. OR, she could show up with the Carnation Cookbook. I believe you can still buy it from the company. Some very good recipes in it.
Load More Replies... I'd say, "Mom, I think some big company stole grandma's recipe. I wonder if we can sue..."
They’d probably actually sue just to keep up the lie 😂
Load More Replies... I make a yummy chocolate cake for family members birthdays. Been making it since i was 17(now 58). Never was it secret that I found it in a magazine ad for hersheys cocoa. Google "hersheys perfect chocolate cake" and it too can be yours. A great easy cake
My fudge recipe is from Hersheys too. It's called quick nut fudge and is fabulous. We've been making it for years.
Load More Replies... This is actually very common. There were two recipes in my family that we thought were gone forever after my grandmother and aunt died. I managed to find both recipes by googling the main ingredient.
I attend a golf tournament picnic every year, and everyone always asks if I'm going to bring my special spinach queso dip. It involves a very complex process of mixing one jar of Tostitos spinach dip with one jar of Tostitos queso sauce and heating. Just remember the wisdom of Mr. Peng from Kung Fu Panda: "To make something special, you just have to TELL people it's special. There is no secret ingredient."
This is hilarious, not the least because some of our family’s best recipes are either straight from or slightly altered from packaging (e.g. my grandma’s pecan pie- straight off a corn syrup bottle, my pancakes, slightly altered from a kid’s cookbook)
I don't understand the hysterics over trying to keep the recipe secret at all. We have one really traditional family recipe that comes from my great-grandma for Christmas bread (Czech vánočka). I refuse to use any other, it has a special place in my heart but I don't see any reason to keep it secret. The exact opposite - I'd be proud to share it with others. People are crazy.
Depends on how fun her family is. I, for one, got a huge laugh out of the day my Aunt sent me to the store to get a package of her famous pie dough from the refrigerated section because she forgot it. Her own husband didn't know! 😂
honestly, they should just share the recipe's origins with all of their family and watch their mom go off :DD
There are secrets and then there are "Secrets"... I'm of the opinion that unless you are profiting monetarily from a "secret" recipe, like, it's how you make your living, who gives a hoot if it's shared? For the life of me, I'll never understand the need for culinary one-upmanship in a non-commercial setting! "My mom's apple pie recipe is the best in the world!", big deal. Maybe to you, it is, but really? Where does this exclusivity of knowledge thing come from, seriously? Wouldn't you like to share your best recipes with others so THEY can share in the joy of making/giving/eating these dishes? I personal hate it when someone tells me that nobody can make Recipe X better than their mom/dad/grandmother etc. I'll just go home and figure it out and usually make something equally good (and sometimes better) just out of curiosity and a smidgen of spite. So what, your mom makes awesome fudge, and you know how to make it yourself. Make a batch, include the recipe on a card, and tell them it's your recipe. Your mom feel into the "Pride goeth before a fall" trap. It'll be good for her. Your family supporting her unjustified pride? They fell into it on her behalf, let them go rub salve on each other's wounds. NTA!
My family used to buy dip from a local mom&pop store. We loved their dip. Then they died. My mom found the recipe in one of her books - I think it was a local recipe book. Then the daughter started making and selling the dip. Mom still buys it from her - like 10-12 cartons for the holidays. Much easier than making it herself. And we still call it by the family's name.
Load More Replies... If you like stories like this, there's a YouTube cooking show I watch called "Glen and Friends Cooking" where he does recipes from old cookbooks, and a lot of the time he talks about how often someone's "special recipe" is just one that got passed around most of the newspaper recipe columns in the country several years ago. It's just that a handful of people held on to it while most have forgotten about the newspaper article.
I would have ordered a dozen of the cans with the recipe and spread them as family christmas gifts
...fudge isn't exactly a recipe known by one single person. Most recipes aren't. Sure, we may adapt them slightly but they're the same at their "root" I wouldn't be ashamed or disheartened or feel like an AH. I love to experiment, and finding new recipes online is great. Then you add your own special twist on it. Or not, if you don't want to. Who cares?!
Sometimes the difference lies in the quality of the ingredients. The difference can be markedly better, or worse.
Load More Replies... My uncle did something similar, at first they the family was shocked to fing out the secret wasn't a secret. Then the laughter started, from them in the secret recipe because a running joke in the family.
My Aunt Mary's German Chocolate Cake recipe came from the Baker's Chocolate wrapper. Her twist on it was that, a) she used *every bit* of the batter (no beaters or bowl to scrounge!), b) she was the only one who went through all the work of baking that cake & cooking the frosting from scratch. Finally, c) she made it with a lot of love. Now I carry on the tradition. I also love to tweak the noses of those who *want* that recipe to gloat over. I just smile and tell them, "Seek and Ye shall find." LOL! They'd never go through the work, anyhow. 😊
I'll never understand why some people are such big a******s. Why not share a recipe? Except if you are a chef and you create special recipes, everybody else gets their recipes from somebody. Also, fudge is very simple and has exactly two ingredients, so if you help prepare it once, you'll remember forever. If I were the OP, I'd spill the beans.
Not sure about being TA or not here but now I'm suddenly in the mood for some good fudge :-P
I favor the recipe on the marshmallow cream jar. I also vary that one by substituting butterscotch chips for the chocolate chips. Both versions are easy and good.
Load More Replies... Never understand this "secret family" whatever garbage. The TRUTH is always the best. Nothing to be worry about. Why do so many even CARE what the "family" thinks. Stupid is as stupid DOES.
My family has a long-running joke We have a secret recipe for pumpkin pie and fudge. Now our recipe is not secret anybody can find it cuz it's on the side of the can of a brand of sweetened condensed that milk that shares my last name. Lol. So it is in fact a"secret family recipe" but I always tell anyone who wants to know how I make my stuff just try the side of a Borden sweetened condensed milk can. Most people have figured it out at this point.
Honestly, I'd let them take it to the grave with them. But then teach my kids the truth.
While my family never made fudge, two of our signature desserts growing up were banana pudding and sweet potato pie. The banana pudding recipe came from a box of Nilla Vanilla Wafers from Nabisco (which are used as a cake base to line the dish then make layers, similar to tiramisu, which uses lady's fingers cookies). The pie was more by rote, where there's no written recipe, but it's pretty simple (the secret is evaporated milk, which provides a creamy consistency). My younger sister now makes both desserts as close to how our mom did, as well as a few other things.
If I wanted fun with this, I wouldn't tell the official holders of the secret family recipe I knew, I'd ask Mom and Grandma to whip up a batch of secret recipe fudge as part of a fudge-off, enlist the siblings and other relatives who've not been let in on the recipe yet in taking part making some fudge too. Then subtly push at least a couple to use the Carnation recipe, and watch the confusion as they realise they've made something so close, if not identical, to the secret recipe. Oh, but I'd use a recipe from another book (not the Carnation website/family secret one).
due to health reasons, my grandmother ended up changing a family turkey dressing recipe for her dad. originally, it was one with raisins, nuts, and some other things that, in my opinion, make it sound more like a sweet than savory dressing. the resulting dressing is one that is loved by all. mom would always make it on her own but when i left the house i asked for the recipe which she gave...kind of. for years, it was close but not the same. so, while visting i got her to go over the recipe with me and she revealed that she didn't tell me a couple of tips...like certain spices and amount of veg that goes into it. now, i make it like mom. after she passed dad and i were reminiscing about her cooking and i told him this story. it was then that he confessed that she would often leave out an ingredient when sharing recipes but to do this to her own daughter really ticked him off. but, we laughed about it now.
It's no big deal. A lot of the secrets are added without being in the recipe. E.g., my grandma's secret recipe for fudge was from Hershey's *to start*. but she added her own twists as whim took her, so we had her spice-swirl fudge that was *not* Hershey
My ex MIL never wanted anyone’s food to turn out better than hers, so she’d give you the recipe, if you wanted it. BUT… she’d omit ingredients or give you the wrong quantities. For example, she had a recipe for Italian sausage that claimed you needed 2 teaspoons of cayenne pepper. It was way too spicy! I watched her making it once… 1/2 teaspoon. :/
Unless that recipe is the foundation of a business, who cares - keeping recipes secret is a great way to lose them. Spread them out, make tasty food, everyone wins.
Story may not be wrong. Many people submitted recipes in hopes of receiving prizes or for the satisfaction of knowing their recipe was the "best".
I am going reverse the general consensus: revealing the secret would make them TA. Who knows who did what and when. It is a family tradition and is a sweet family tradition. But thanks to OP and the internet, that could be destroyed. It's harmless and something that can connect family. I am willing to wager the teasing is over exaggerated. Just let it go. There is too little magic and wonder in the world.
Best spiteful idea…tell everyone you found a better recipe! The one on the side of the can of evaporated milk! Then make some and give it out and have fun as they all say that Grandma’s recipe is better!
It is possible grandma got the recipe from a friend of a friend and never knew it was on the side of the can.
I have always loved my mother’s chocolate chip cookies but mine were not the same. I asked her. She said it was just the recipe on the tollhouse cookie bag. I asked the same question several times over about 10 years. Finally, angry and frustrated with my persistence, she shouted, “I just use the recipe on the bag of chocolate chips, I just add an extra 1/4 cup of flour!” Of course, as a natural baker, she just assumed her minor alteration was something anyone would know!
My mother made the best fudge my entire childhood. I was totally surprised when I found out years later she was using the recipe on the back of the Marshmallow Fluff jar.
I had this moment with my mom’s meatloaf. I love her meatloaf and it’s the only one I’ll eat. One day she pulled out a box of Lipton onion soup mix and just as an afterthought she showed me the side of the box and randomly said “if you ever want to make meatloaf this is the recipe I use.” I was devastated to find out that this whole time I thought her amazing meatloaf was special it really wasn’t
I’m all for calling out family on their toxic bs. They lied about a “secret family recipe” for generations then scapegoated a descendant for not keeping their mouth shut? Tell the world! Take out a full-page ad in the local newspaper! Have no mercy!
Out the whole family. F them all. Post the link to the website on Facebook and watch them out themselves for recognizing it.
By the way, they are making an issue out of nothing because they like being miserable and critical. Not your problem. Defuse and stop this whole mess by passing out the recipe. You still have the secret ingredient, the LOVE you put into it when you make it.
Your ok. The secret ingredients is LOVE. Everyone loves my husband's cranberry sauce, because he made it. Food usually tastes better if you don't have to cook it. The fudge is loved because someone special made it every year and the mystery of the secret ingredient. Do they still enjoy the fudge? Everything is on line now, every recipe started somewhere. It did come from a special chef somewhere and it ended up being on the carnation can and now its can be found on the internet. That's our life today. I like the idea of the can. Fudge is like many family dishes, it can be altered to make it your own, special and enjoyed by all. You have nothing to feel bad about. Using a pretty font print out the recipe, from you and the chef at Carnation. Give it out next time you serve it, they are already giving you grief so end it.
Did it occur to you that the "famous candy maker" from whom your great-grandmother got the recipe was using the recipe from the can? Poor great-grandma probably thought she had really snagged a secret treasure, so naturally grandma and mom think so too. My mom would laugh about it but it doesn't sound like yours will find it amusing. Why break her heart? Save it for a funny story to tell after she's gone.
44
60